I went to Borough Market on Wednesday. I’ve complained before about how I’ve come to miss American supermarkets. Perhaps it is just this area of London, but there simply is no place nearby to get fresh fish or fresh meat. It turns out that the closest butcher or fishmonger is at Borough Market, so I will probably end up going there more. I’ve discovered that if I go early enough in the day, I can beat the mob scene that develops over lunchtime. The main reason I went was that couldn’t figure out where to buy a turkey for Thanksgiving. I was able to pre-order one at a butcher there and, while I was at it, bought some pheasant for dinner, tiny tomatoes (like red pearls), purple carrots, cheese and a raspberry tart.

On the way back, I passed Galvin Cafe-A-Vin and recalled that they are having a special breakfast on November 19th for the arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau in England. It’s a nice restaurant, so I reserved two seats. It should be fun.

Political Update: The November 16th issue of The Nation had an article about the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party. It seems a little late in picking up on a left-wing victory, one that would have to make the Nation folks happy. They tied it into the other victories that left-wing parties have recently had in Europe (most recently in Portugal)`, but were fairly realistic about Corbyn and his limitations. I’m doubtful that the left is actually on the rise (that is wishful thinking from the Nation, I’m afraid). It seems more likely that the middle is simply collapsing, since far right parties are also doing pretty well in European elections. And I’m not sure that any of this portends anything at all for America.

Meanwhile, George Osbourne continues to flounder about as a result of his ill-advised attempt to close his budget gap and pay for tax cuts for the wealthy by cutting support (tax credits) for the working poor. (The British call people who are working at low paying jobs, trying to support a family and to raise themselves up “Strivers”, which is the perfect word that explains and underscores public sentiment and disgust about how wrong-headed Osborne’s ideas are.) In the latest blow to Osbourne’s plan (and probably his limitless political ambitions as well), a Parliamentary committee controlled by his own party condemned the whole idea and suggested it be shelved for at least a year and then implemented gradually, if at all, while complaining that Osbourne’s Treasury was evasive and engaged in “obfuscation” about the overall impact of the proposals. And then former PM, John Major (Thatcher’s Conservative successor and a pretty right-wing guy himself) joined in the fun of kicking Osborne while he is down, attacking the “shocking” levels of inequality in Britain, a statement that recalled Captain Renault in “Casablanca”.

Not to be outdone by his ham-handed, self-designated successor, Cameron spent much of the week stumbling around trying to figure out what his current position is on British membership in the European Union. I think that Cameron wants to stay in the EU  and secretly realizes that the people who want Britain to leave are a bunch of Trump-like xenophobes and that Britain doesn’t need to shoot itself in the economic foot in that way. But he couldn’t bring himself to be unambiguously pro-EU in the last election, so he talked about how he was going to have some tough negotiations with the EU about Britain’s continued membership and hold a referendum. Faced with this bloviating and annoyed that Britain was insisting on negotiating without any specifics, the EU sensibly asked Cameron to send them (in writing) what he had in mind. Cameron finally got around to sending the letter and the answer was “not much really”. A Eurosceptic Conservative backbencher referred to as “pretty thin gruel” during question time in the House of Commons. Cameron really does not control his party on this issue and leaving the whole thing up to a possibly irrational electorate doesn’t seem like leadership. Although he is moving toward firm EU support and probably wishes he hadn’t promised a referendum, the whole thing is a mess for him and will probably get worse since, no matter what happens, virtually everyone will be unhappy.

While these sort of things sometimes fill the front pages of the newspapers, the back pages are more consistently about the demise of the Chelsea football team. Chelsea won the Premier League last year, but this year has managed to lose more than half the games it has played. This just doesn’t happen to a top Premier League team like Chelsea. There isn’t real parity in the Premier League. The top five or so teams (Chelsea is one of them) are always at the top, sometimes joined by one surprise team (West Ham this year). Chelsea’s collapse is a little like the Red Sox winning the World Series one year and then collapsing the next (oh wait, that happened?) and falling into last place for no apparent reason. Chelsea has a famous coach, who thinks a great deal of himself and is very outspoken and who loves to talk to and insult the press. (If you Boston fans want to continue the analogy, think of Bobby Valentine.)

Judie was invited to go to the Country Living Christmas Fair by the lawyer (actually a barrister) that she is in the process of hiring for Bryan Cave’s Payments Team in London (if the bean counters in America don’t manage to screw the whole thing up). She tried to get me to go, but it seemed like an event for mostly middle-aged white women to look a the sort of fussy decorations and little gifts that I don’t really like any way (not that there is anything wrong with that, he hastened to add). Judie went without me and had a good time.